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Hancey: An open letter to Ms. Reed, asking for your resignation
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Commentary, Local

Hancey: An open letter to Ms. Reed, asking for your resignation

By Aaron Hancey | Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice I respectfully ask for your immediate resignation! You have had the privilege of being a leader to your community on at least two different occasions: 1. As a teacher and survivor of the shooting at Columbine High School and 2. As a currently elected non-partisan official on the Jefferson County School Board.  I can relate.  I am also a non-partisan elected official. I currently am the mayor pro-tem for the City of Fruita on the Western Slope of Colorado. I, too, am a survivor of the shooting at Columbine High School and was 17 years old when I helped to lead a classroom that was full of scared students and teachers while I administered first aid to Mr. Sanders. He had been shot multiple times and I spent three-and-a-...
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Teacher’s alleged Trump post does not speak for district, Jeffco schools say
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kdvr.com, Local

Teacher’s alleged Trump post does not speak for district, Jeffco schools say

By Morgan Whitley | Fox 31 News Jefferson County Public Schools sent a statement to FOX31 after screenshots were shared across the internet allegedly showing one of the district’s teachers discussing how former President Donald Trump “was almost taken out” at his rally on Saturday. A Facebook post allegedly made by an elementary school teacher is making its rounds online. Screenshots of the post appear to show the teacher talking about Trump’s attempted assassination and allegedly agreeing with a commenter who was upset “they missed.” “Please know that Jeffco Public Schools does not endorse violence of any kind. The district has social media guidance that encourages our employees to conduct themselves in a professional manner and refrain from posting inappropriate conten...
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Jeffco will pilot new programs, including a welcome center bus, to better serve immigrant students
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Chalkbeat Colorado, Local

Jeffco will pilot new programs, including a welcome center bus, to better serve immigrant students

By Yesenia Robles | Chalkbeat Colorado An influx of immigrant students last year left the Jeffco school district scrambling to meet their needs. So this fall, officials are piloting new programs and support to help students. The school district is piloting a series of changes, including new staff, resources, and curriculum materials, as well as a new welcome center bus, after hundreds of immigrant students arrived throughout the past school year. The district is planning for the surge to continue into next school year. “Our schools have been incredibly autonomous in how they meet the needs of our special populations and especially our multilingual language learners,” Jeffco Superintendent Tracy Dorland told the district’s school board this spring. “Our student achievement data tel...
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1st Amendment claim of fired Douglas County school employee will be heard by jury
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coloradopolitics.com, State

1st Amendment claim of fired Douglas County school employee will be heard by jury

By Michael Karlik | Colorado Politics A jury will decide whether a Douglas County charter school fired an employee because of her protected online speech about vaccinations, a federal judge ruled last month. At the same time, U.S. Magistrate Judge Scott T. Varholak determined Jennifer Webb's repeated reports of alleged financial improprieties were not protected by the First Amendment. Consequently, jurors would not evaluate whether Aspen View Academy retaliated against her for raising concerns of embezzlement. Webb was the business manager for Aspen View, an elementary and middle school in Castle Rock, between 2017 and 2021. Her job generally entailed bookkeeping and financial oversight. Webb soon became concerned about financial malfeasance by the school's principal, Robert Barbe...
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‘Uncertainty’ hits Boulder Valley S.D. amid enrollment decline, new funding law and tax cap measure
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Boulder Reporting Lab, Local

‘Uncertainty’ hits Boulder Valley S.D. amid enrollment decline, new funding law and tax cap measure

By Jenna Sampson | Boulder Reporting Lab The Boulder Valley School District is set to spend over $550 million on operating expenditures next school year. In lockstep with declining enrollment, fixed costs continue to rise, increasing the cost per student. Boulder spends over $4,000 more per pupil than the state average of $15,000, with some schools allocating over $22,000 per student. This yearly enrollment decline of 1.5%, combined with a new funding law and a November 2024 ballot measure to cap property taxes — a major revenue source for BVSD — has sparked concerns about the district’s future budget. Although the new funding law may provide additional state aid, this will be offset by declining enrollment unless the district manages to reduce fixed costs. One potenti...
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Classroom ‘churn’ has negative effect on third grade reading scores, study finds
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Chalkbeat Colorado, State

Classroom ‘churn’ has negative effect on third grade reading scores, study finds

By Melanie Asmar | Chalkbeat Colorado Classroom “churn” — when students leave a classroom midyear or new students join — can have a negative effect on third grade reading scores, according to a new study that examined Colorado census and state standardized test data. The study, by researchers at the Colorado Futures Center at Colorado State University, found that higher classroom churn was correlated with lower third grade reading scores, based on data from 2019. It’s a trend that the center’s executive director and lead economist, Phyllis Resnick, suspects has ramped up since that year, as schools experience higher levels of chronic absenteeism after the pandemic and struggle to make up for lost learning. After the study revealed that finding, Resnick said she spok...
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Many Colorado schools will split $11.4M in Juul lawsuit settlement funds for vaping education, prevention
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Chalkbeat Colorado, State

Many Colorado schools will split $11.4M in Juul lawsuit settlement funds for vaping education, prevention

By Melanie Asmar | Chalkbeat Colorado Twenty-one Colorado school districts, seven charter schools, one cooperative education services board, and one youth residential treatment center have been awarded $11.4 million in funding over the next three years for vaping education and prevention programs. The money comes from a $31.7 million settlement between the state of Colorado and e-cigarette manufacturer Juul Labs Inc. Colorado sued Juul in 2020, alleging that it targeted youth with deceptive marketing and played down the health risks of vaping. In settling the lawsuit, Juul did not admit any wrongdoing. Colorado is poised to spend the bulk of the settlement money on a $20 million grant program aimed at improving children’s mental health. But the state is also giving smaller grants ...
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Boll: Local media demonizes engaged conservative community members
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Commentary, Local, Rocky Mountain Voice

Boll: Local media demonizes engaged conservative community members

By Laureen Boll | Guest Columnist, Rocky Mountain Voice I’m quite close to recent events happening at the Douglas County School Board, given my role as a parent advocacy leader in Douglas County and being a parent of two children whose K-12 years were spent in Douglas County School District (DCSD). Much of my role as a parent advocate is monitoring laws and regulations against the rights of individuals upheld by the U.S. Constitution, and speaking up when it appears that the rights of parents and/or students are being violated by the government, in this case taxpayer-funded schools.  The Douglas County School District recently updated its Nondiscrimination/Equal Opportunity policy to incorporate a new state statute titled “Concerning Protections for Students Against Discrimin...
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How public schools became ideological boot camps
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National, The Free Press

How public schools became ideological boot camps

By Robert Pondiscio | The Free Press A pair of teachers at New Jersey’s Fort Lee High School recently taught students that Hamas is a peaceful “resistance movement” and Israel is committing genocide. Teachers at California’s Berkeley Unified School District are “indoctrinating students with antisemitic tropes and biased, one-sided anti-Israel propaganda disguised as education,” according to a complaint by the Anti-Defamation League. Meanwhile, students recently chanted “from the river to the sea” at college campus “tentifadas”—but when pressed could identify neither.  Why does this keep happening? And how can public schools at once be hotbeds of radicalism and “woke” indoctrination, yet produce students who are so poorly informed about the radical c...
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Young teachers at Denver school say they were sexually abused by special needs students for months without help
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Local, The Colorado Sun

Young teachers at Denver school say they were sexually abused by special needs students for months without help

By Jennifer Brown | The Colorado Sun Three young educators at a Denver school for kids with severe behavioral issues were routinely sexually assaulted by students and ignored by administrators when they sought help, according to a new lawsuit.  The three women, recent college graduates who were passionate about working with children with special needs, said that for months they endured being groped, grabbed and choked at The Laradon School, a nonprofit with about 70 students in north Denver.  Victoria Schmidt, a paraprofessional hired in 2021, was repeatedly assaulted by a 13-year-old boy in her classroom, including the day he grabbed her in a hallway, placed her in a chokehold so tight that she feared she would die, and stuck his hand “deep inside her pants and underwea...
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